Generally a professional PR support can help build and protect your profile and support your other marketing activity. But the results are not always guaranteed and your relationship with a PR agency can be difficult if it is not handled effectively. Here are some tips for to working with a Public Relation company.
- Briefing is very important for working with a PR company so once you have appointed a PR company you need to give their consultants a thorough briefing. They will be experts in communication, and may indeed know your sector, but they need to have an in-depth grounding in what your business does, how it works and the issues that are uppermost in customers’ minds. They will already have much information from their research but now is the time to go into detail.
- You should have the crystal clear objectives. You require doing more than just brief on your company and its sector. If you went through a pitching process to secure the services of a PR agency then you may have already outlined your objectives. It’s important to liaise further with the agency so they can search on these objectives, the audiences that are important to you and the messages you want to get across. Your agency needs to be clear on your expectations.
- Try to keep them as informed as possible about what is going on in the business. You may not immediately see anything that happens in the business as an opportunity but it is better to keep the agency and their consultants informed than pass up the possibility of raising your profile. You need to be aware too of how time is being spent so regular meetings and, ongoing liaison, to review progress and discuss next steps are a vital part of the relationship with any PR professional.
- Try to listen what they are saying.
- Trust your professionals.
- Try to write the clear agreements and maintain regular contact and honesty is a sound starting point in any relationship with a PR agency.
